N-gated Hacker NewsJul 17, 2025
๐ŸŽ“ Ah, the 1960s, when educational geniuses decided to rewrite the alphabet and unleashed a generation of kids who couldn't spell "cat" without a dictionary. ๐Ÿฑ๐Ÿ” But hey, who needs literacy when you've got innovation, right? ๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿšซ
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/06/1960s-schools-experiment-created-new-alphabet-thousands-children-unable-to-spell #1960sEducation #AlphabetReform #LiteracyInnovation #SpellingChallenges #HackerNews #ngated
The radical 1960s schools experiment that created a whole new alphabet โ€“ and left thousands of children unable to spell

Decades ago, a generation of UK schoolchildren unwittingly took part in an initiative aimed at boosting reading skills โ€“ with lasting consequences

The Guardian
Show thread๐‘–๐‘ฑ๐‘๐‘พ๐‘ฏ (Shaw Alphabet) ๐ŸฆOct 1, 2023
Today I learnt that one of the bauhaus school, Herbert Bayer, designed a โ€˜phoneticโ€™ alphabet for English with special letters for โ€˜sound groupsโ€™ like -ed, -en, -ion, -ng, and -ory. His โ€˜Basic Alphabetโ€™ prioritised function over aesthetics (surprise, surprise), favouring distinctive letter shapes to visual harmony. The result is kind of fun. #bauhaus #HerbertBayer #BasicAlphabet #AlphabetReform #neography
๐‘–๐‘ฑ๐‘๐‘พ๐‘ฏ (Shaw Alphabet) ๐ŸฆOct 1, 2023
๐‘‘๐‘ฉ๐‘›๐‘ฑ ๐‘ฒ ๐‘ค๐‘ป๐‘ฏ๐‘‘ ๐‘ž๐‘จ๐‘‘ ๐‘ข๐‘ณ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ ๐‘ž ยท๐‘š๐‘ฌ๐‘ฃ๐‘ฌ๐‘• ๐‘•๐‘’๐‘ต๐‘ค, ยท๐‘ฃ๐‘ป๐‘š๐‘ผ๐‘‘ ๐‘š๐‘ฒ๐‘ผ, ๐‘›๐‘ฆ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ฒ๐‘ฏ๐‘› ๐‘ฉ โ€น๐‘“๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ๐‘ง๐‘‘๐‘ฆ๐‘’โ€บ ๐‘จ๐‘ค๐‘“๐‘ฉ๐‘š๐‘ง๐‘‘ ๐‘“ ๐‘ฆ๐‘™๐‘œ๐‘ค๐‘ฆ๐‘– ๐‘ข๐‘ฆ๐‘ž ๐‘•๐‘๐‘ง๐‘–๐‘ฉ๐‘ค ๐‘ค๐‘ง๐‘‘๐‘ผ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘“ โ€น๐‘•๐‘ฌ๐‘ฏ๐‘› ๐‘œ๐‘ฎ๐‘ต๐‘๐‘•โ€บ ๐‘ค๐‘ฒ๐‘’ -ed, -en, -ion, -ng ๐‘ฏ -ory. ๐‘ฃ๐‘ฆ๐‘Ÿ โ€น๐‘š๐‘ฑ๐‘•๐‘ฆ๐‘’ ๐‘จ๐‘ค๐‘“๐‘ฉ๐‘š๐‘ง๐‘‘โ€บ ๐‘๐‘ฎ๐‘ฒ๐‘ช๐‘ฎ๐‘ฆ๐‘‘๐‘ฒ๐‘Ÿ๐‘› ๐‘“๐‘ณ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘–๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ ๐‘ด๐‘๐‘ผ ๐‘ฐ๐‘•๐‘”๐‘ง๐‘‘๐‘ฆ๐‘’๐‘• (๐‘•๐‘ผ๐‘๐‘ฎ๐‘ฒ๐‘Ÿ, ๐‘•๐‘ผ๐‘๐‘ฎ๐‘ฒ๐‘Ÿ), ๐‘“๐‘ฑ๐‘๐‘ผ๐‘ฆ๐‘™ ๐‘›๐‘ฆ๐‘•๐‘‘๐‘ฆ๐‘™๐‘’๐‘‘๐‘ฆ๐‘ ๐‘ค๐‘ง๐‘‘๐‘ผ ๐‘–๐‘ฑ๐‘๐‘• ๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘ฆ๐‘ ๐‘ซ๐‘ฉ๐‘ค ๐‘ฃ๐‘ธ๐‘ฅ๐‘ฉ๐‘ฏ๐‘ฆ. ๐‘ž ๐‘ฎ๐‘ฆ๐‘Ÿ๐‘ณ๐‘ค๐‘‘ ๐‘ฆ๐‘Ÿ ๐‘’๐‘ฒ๐‘ฏ๐‘› ๐‘ ๐‘“๐‘ณ๐‘ฏ. #bauhaus #HerbertBayer #BasicAlphabet #AlphabetReform #๐‘–๐‘ฑ๐‘๐‘พ๐‘ฏ